


Parting the Clouds 2 -- The Infiltration

by Derin



Series: Parting the Clouds [2]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 09:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 14,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2019066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Derin/pseuds/Derin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After failing to rescue Tom from the Yeerk Pool, getting Tobias trapped in hawk morph and nearly getting killed, the Animorphs aren't sure how to proceed in protecting their planet. Spying on Tom could put him in danger and threaten Jake's secret identity, but fortunately, the Animorphs know another high-ranking Controller -- Assistant Principal Chapman, whose daughter Melissa is good friends with Rachel, giving them the perfect 'in'.</p>
<p>But something's not right about Melissa. Rachel's pretty sure she's a Controller. She insists on being the one to go ahead with the spying mission, but with this new information, Cassie feels uneasy about putting her friend in such a position. Is Rachel up to the task? Or will she lose everything trying to help an old friend?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

My name is Cassie. Normally, I'm a thirteen-year-old girl.

Sometimes, I'm an osprey.

It was Thursday afternoon, and we were gliding above the forest out behind my house. Tobias, our resident flying expert, had offered to give us a flying lesson. He’d said that the best place to fly was above the city in late afternoon and early evening, but we'd decided that a collection of birds like us would look very odd indeed to anybody who happened to glance upward.

Marco, gliding not far from me, was an osprey as well. Two ospreys flying together would only look a little bit odd, but throw in Rachel the bald eagle who was trying to match Tobias' red-tailed hawk acrobatics out ahead of us, and Jake behind us struggling to soar properly on his tiny peregrine falcon wings, and we were definitely a sight that anybody who knew anything about birds would comment on.

We were flying because everybody having a good airborne getaway morph that they knew how to use was a great asset to the team. But we were _actually_ flying because it was really, really fun.

[Woo-hooo!] That was Rachel ahead of us, following Tobias into a dive.

[Yaaaaa ha ha!!] Jake, shooting underneath us in a dive, catching up to and surpassing the other two. Jake's tiny wings weren't the best for soaring, but they were brilliant for diving. His manoeuvrability and diving speed was the perfect offset to Rachel's sheer bulk and strength and Tobias' acrobatic grace. I'd picked the same morph as Marco because we ran out of birds in the Rehabilitation Centre, and the best thing to double up on seemed to be what the other birds lacked entirely – underwater sight. All the birds had great eyesight (including ultraviolet sight, which was a nice but disconcerting surprise – gliding under a violet sky will never feel normal), but only our morphs could see through water, shiny windows and heat haze almost as if it wasn't there.

[They are so childish,] Marco sniffed next to me.

[I know. Stupid little kid competitiveness.]

[Everyone knows ospreys kick their bird's butts.]

[Totally.]

We dove.

Tobias had been right. Flying was the coolest thing ever. Running across fields as a horse didn't even compare. Flying was a whole new level of cool, speed and grace in three dimensions with no obstacles. Of course, if we fell, we would almost certainly die.

Marco and I skimmed the treetops and pulled up again. The others were already gaining lift. I told myself it was because we'd started diving last, but I knew that Jake and Tobias were faster divers than we were.

Zzzziiinnnngggg!

Something went right by my head.

[You guys hear that?] Tobias asked.

[What was it?] Rachel asked.

[I don't know.]

Zzzziiinnnngggg!

I scanned the forest below and saw the problem. [I can see them.] I could hear the hatred in my own mental voice. [Two guys, over in the woods. They have a rifle.]

[Controllers?] Marco asked.

[No, they’d use lasers,] I replied.

[Dracon beams,] Tobias said.

[What?]

[The yeerk lasers. They're called Dracon beams. An adaptation of andalite Shredders.]

[On the list of things that are important right now, Tobias, yeerk terminology ranks somewhere below my love of maple and ginger oatmeal,] Marco snapped.

[Anyway,] I interrupted, [I think these are just morons. Sometimes we get animals in the clinic with random bullet wounds. People think it's funny to go out and take potshots at the wildlife.]

Zzzziiinnnngggg! Another bullet zipped by us.

[I can't believe this!] Rachel was really mad. [I'm an endangered species. I'm a bald eagle! What's the matter with those creeps?]

[He's getting ready to shoot again,] Marco reported. [I can see him taking aim.]

[As soon as you see the flash of the rifle, dodge hard right!] Jake yelled.

The muzzle flashed. We dodged right.

[Argh!] Rachel.

[Rachel! Are you ok?!]

[Yeah, I... I don't think I was hit.]

[You know what? I don't think I like those guys,] Tobias said. Tobias had, understandably, become a lot more defensive about birds in general since our trip to the yeerk pool had left him permanently in hawk form.

[Me neither,] Rachel agreed. [I have an idea. Let's get some cover.]

Rachel, ever the adrenalin junkie, gained some altitude, and then dove below the treetops. Rachel's idea didn't look very safe to me, but my hatred of bored idiots with guns overrode my caution. I followed, diving straight down, the treetops rushing up toward me, and then flaring my wings as I dipped beneath them, trading vertical speed for horizontal.

Ospreys aren't really designed for flying in dense woodland, but the osprey brain still knew a lot more about flying than I did. I let my instincts take control.

_Tree!_ I dodged left. _Tree!_ I dodged right. _Treetreetreetree!_

The trip through the forest was an insane self-directed roller coaster where one wrong wing twitch could kill any one of us. It occurred to me what a profoundly stupid idea this was, but by then it was too late to pull out.

Suddenly, there they were, just ahead in a clearing. Two teenage creeps sitting in the back of a pickup truck. One guy had a blond ponytail.

The other one wore a baseball cap. They were a hundred yards away, like being all the way down a football field, but my raptor eyes were so good I could count their eyelashes.

The guy with the ponytail had the rifle. The other guy was drinking a beer. They were still scanning the skies, looking for us.

Rachel reached the clearing first. She was the biggest bird, and could carry the heaviest load. They didn't even see her race for them, talons outstretched, until she was plucking the rifle from the man's arms.

“What the...”

By then, though, the rest of us were on him. I could hear Tobias berating the men in open thought-speak, with flagrant disregard for the very real possibility that they might be Controllers.

[Think it's funny to shoot at innocent birds, huh? You get bored and drunk and decide to come out here for a little target practise? Why not just spend your beer money on a copy of Duck Hunt you – ]

“Aargh!” This was from the rifle-carrying man as Tobias raked his talons along the side of the man's face. Deep enough to scratch, not deep enough to scar. He clutched at his face, allowing Rachel to pull the rifle away.

I was busy diving for the baseball cap. Talons out, snap shut, just like snatching a salmon from the water.

“Hey! My cap!”

“Screw your cap, what about my gun?!”

[This is insane,] Marco remarked flatly as he tugged on the man's ponytail, letting go and flying away just as the man swiped for him. [This is so insane that we need to invent a new word for this level of insanity. Any ideas?]

[This... is... JUSTICE,] Rachel screamed in our heads, followed by a peal of mental laughter. She was returning to the clearing, _sans_ gun.

[Where is – ] Jake asked.

[Dropped it in a lake.]

[And Rachel steps neatly in to prove my point,] Marco said.

[Yeah, we should… we should probably go now,] Jake pointed out.

[Just one more thing.] Marco swooped down and plucked the beer from the now capless teenager.

“Hey! That's mine!”

[They're way too young to be drinking,] Marco said in his most parent-like voice, as if he hadn’t just been complaining about everybody else acting insane.

[Stupidity of this little adventure aside, it's been almost two hours,] I pointed out.

And with that, we were out of there.


	2. Chapter 2

In actual fact we'd only been an hour and a half, according to the watch I'd left resting neatly on the pile of my clothes in the old, unused church we'd taken off from. But half an hour was a good buffer.

The four of us who were morph-capable landed on the floor of the church, next to our individual clothing piles. Tobias perched on the sill. We'd barely landed when the changes began; Rachel's feathers melted into her skin, Jake's beak dissolved into a disturbingly human mouth still on a bird face and Marco's wings suddenly grew long, creepy fingers. They'd never really learned to control morphing.

So I'm a showoff. Sue me.

I let the feathers sink into my skin, leaving a delicate pattern, and stopped them before it disappeared completely. My wings I left feathered and intact as I grew to human size, my body joints moving to make a humanoid shape, bird flesh moulding itself into my normal form. My head changed all at once in a matter of seconds, eyes growing and moving closer together as the top of my beak melted into a nose and my short black hair appeared. Only then did I let my human skin reassert itself entirely, leaving me a twelve-year-old girl in a light blue leotard, with osprey wings for arms. The others were staring at me while their remaining birdlike oddities resolved into human features. I grinned and spread my wings.

“Do you think you could fly?” Jake asked, wonder in his voice.

I laughed. “No. These wings aren't built to take the weight of a human. There's a reason you don't get flying birds this big.” Actually there were several reasons, but I wasn't about to bore my friends with a biology lecture. I flapped my wings and turned them into arms in a single, smooth stroke.

Marco shook his head. "Great. When we morph we look like some mad scientist's genetic experiment gone totally crazy. And Cassie gets to look like an angel."

“We sort of are a genetic experiment gone crazy,” I said, “but I can't vouch for the sanity of the creator.” I pulled on my jeans and old farm shirt, feeling slightly scruffy next to Rachel as she straightened her upmarket hot pink top that I could only assume was in fashion this season. I don't normally pay much attention to clothing except on special occasions, but sometimes the contrast is stark. Rachel put in her gold hoop earrings and pulled out her compact to reapply some makeup.

“What?” she said, realising I was staring.

“Your earrings.”

She reached up to touch them. “Did one fall out?”

“No, I mean you got them in. Piercings are an injury. Self-inflicted, but your body has no way of knowing the difference. I know morphing heals our injuries. I tested. So why are your ears still pierced?”

[You cut yourself to see if you'd heal?] Tobias asked incredulously.

“No, I skinned my knuckles by accident.” I didn't add that I actually had been planning to nick my finger to test it anyway. “That's not the point. Why does morphing keep your piercings?”

“I don't know. Why does morphing remember my last haircut?” She shook back her hair.

“I don't know! None of this makes sense!” I squinted. “And I never noticed that humans are nearly blind until right now!” Going to human vision after osprey vision was like walking into a heavy fog.

"Personally, I'm glad to be back to my regular body," Marco said. "The flying part is great, but it's not a good idea to be able to see that well."

"Why?" Jake asked.

"Look, Jake, how many times have you been walking around the mall or whatever, and you'll see a girl who seems good-looking from far off, but when you get closer it turns out she's a skank? I mean, if you could see this well all the time -- "

"Excuse me?" Rachel interrupted, raising a brow. "I'm sure I didn't hear you say what I thought you just said."

"I wasn't being sexist," Marco protested. "It goes both ways. See, from far off, I look taller than I am."

"Your problem isn't with people seeing you too well," Rachel retorted. "It's with people hearing you too well. You look like a fairly smart guy. Then you open your mouth..."

Marco just grinned. Before this whole Animorph thing, when Marco had just been Jake's friend who hung around him a lot, he hadn't made much impression on me beyond being a class clown who lives to annoy people. So far, nothing had changed that impression very much.

“I need to get back soon,” Jake said, looking at the sky longingly as if he could wish that to not be true. “I have homework to do.”

“And I have chores,” I groaned. “I hate how we get to fly around and have fun and then suddenly we have to come back to being our boring human selves.” As soon as I realised what I'd said, I shot an apologetic look at Tobias, but he didn't seem to have noticed.

“Whoah, nobody go anywhere yet,” Marco said. “I feel wrong being the one to bring this up since I'm the one who still thinks we should abandon this whole thing, but isn't it time we talked about the elephant in the room? Namely, that it's three days since Tom last went to the yeerk pool? I'm not saying we should go, I just want to make sure right now that no birds are going to come tapping on my window at 3am and talk me into facing certain death. Again.”

Jake shook his head. “The entrance to the yeerk pool in the janitor's closet is gone. They didn't even bother clearing the tunnel, they just sealed it all up. I just wanted to see if it was still there!” he added defensively, noticing us all staring at him. “And, well, it's not.”

That made sense. A horde of assorted animals had charged through it to escape a fire-breathing monster. It would have taken hours to clear, and the yeerks knew that the 'andalites' knew about it anyway. I almost wished we'd had the presence of mind to escape through a different entrance and left our entry point undiscovered, but heading into unknown territory like that would've been dangerous even if we could have realistically found and gotten to one.

“So we follow Tom tonight,” Rachel suggested.

Jake shook his head. “We leave Tom out of everything. For now. If the yeerks realise we're using him to get to them, they might find it easier to just kill him.”

“Alright then, so long as we're all clear on that,” Marco said as we left the church. Tobias soared high above our heads. He couldn't really participate in the conversation up there; he could thought-speak to us, but wouldn't be able to hear our replies. I supposed he'd teach himself to lipread eventually.

“We could follow somebody else,” Rachel said thoughtfully.

“Assistant Principal Chapman?” Jake asked.

I didn't point out that they were keeping Tom out of things to protect him, but apparently seemed fine endangering the assistant principal.

“What?” Marco said. “No.”

“We don't know Chapman's feeding schedule,” I pointed out.

“That won't be too hard to learn,” Jake said.

“What part of 'you're all going to get yourselves killed' are you not getting?” Marco asked.

“We need a way to get close to him,” I said. “Following him around as a lizard all the time would get complicated, and dangerous.”

“You know what's simple and safe? Staying the hell away from this whole nightmare.”

“You're thinking of Melissa Chapman, aren't you,” Rachel said.

“She is your friend.”

“Yeah, but I can't hang around Chapman's house every night after school or anything. And even if I could, either Melissa is a Controller or they're hiding everything from her, so I doubt I'd find anything.”

“You're all going to die,” Marco said flatly. “All of you.”

"So you just want to lie back and let them win, Marco, is that it?" Rachel asked. ”We need to kick this campaign off and hit them where it hurts.”

“We already tried that,” Marco reminded us. “We nearly died, remember? Yeerks ten, humans zero.”

"We lost one game," Jake said. "You don't quit the sport just because you lose one game."

“Can everybody stop pretending this is a game? You're out there risking your actual lives! For what?”

“For freedom,” I said. I didn't understand how Marco could weigh the continuing freedom of our entire species against the lives of five kids, and come up in favour of the kids. No matter how small our chances of success, there was just too much at stake for that to ever make sense.

“We didn't lose anyway,” Rachel said. “We gave them something to be afraid of.”

“Oh yeah, Visser Three is totally terrified of us,” Marco snapped sarcastically. “I bet he can't sleep at night, he's so scared of five kids. We're not a threat to him, Rachel. We're lunch.”

“He doesn't know what we are,” I pointed out. “He thinks we're andalite warriors, remember? He knows we can morph, and he knows we've infiltrated their yeerk pool and taken out some of their warriors while we were at it. We may not be much a threat, but if they _think_ we are, we might be able to hold the line until the andalites get here.”

“And to make them think we're a threat, we need to get back in there and kick yeerk butt,” Rachel said.

I stopped walking. We'd been moving on autopilot and had reached the edge of the construction site where Elfangor's ship had come down. By unspoken agreement, we skirted around it.

"This morphing thing would be so excellent if it weren't for the whole thing with the yeerks," Marco remarked, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "I mean, if it were just normal, we could really use these powers."

"To do what? Fight crime?" Jake asked.

Marco looked at him with a mixture of pity and amusement. "Fight crime? Who are you, Spiderman? I'm talking show business. Movies! TV shows! I could go on Letterman. I could be an entire episode of Stupid Pet Tricks all by myself."

"You're right," Rachel joked, "you already have the stupid part down."

"We'd be hot in horror movies," I added. Using the powers to learn more about biology and save endangered species would be more responsible, but somehow I didn't think that made for good light conversation.

"Or how about as stuntmen?" Jake suggested. "One of us could jump off the tallest building and it would be totally realistic. Then we just morph into a bird on the way down and fly away."

"Now I'm really mad at the yeerks," Marco said. "They're getting in the way of my showbiz career. I could be a millionaire. I could be trading funny lines with Dave. I could have beautiful Hollywood supermodels all over me."

"Uh-huh," Rachel said, winking at me. "Lots of women love animals. But sooner or later you'd have to change back into your actual self, Marco. And then, boom, they'd be outta there."

We lapsed into silence. Why did the construction site have to be so big, take so long to pass? I tried not to look at it, but where else was there to look? The sky, from where Elfangor's ship, and later the Blade ship, had descended? The quiet path ahead that we could have taken, and avoided the whole thing, leaving us safe and happy, but our planet undefended? I tried not to let the others see the silent tears dripping down my cheeks. Rachel noticed. She sidled up to me.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"No. Are you?"

"I guess not. Last night I had a terrible nightmare about the yeerk pool. I was back down there. Down there in that vast open cave. And I was hearing the screams and cries of the people being dragged to the pool."

I nodded. I remembered being dragged down that pier, knowing that one way or another, everything was over. It had been nothing short of a miracle that the others were able to save me. "You know what's worse than the screams? The way they stop screaming once the yeerk is in their heads. Once they've become Controllers. Then you know they are slaves again. Lost."

"Like Tom." Jake's voice was hollow.

I put an arm around Jake's waist. "Someday we'll save Tom," I assured him.

“Just kidnap him and tie him up for three days,” Marco grumbled.

Jake shook his head. “Wouldn't work.” It hurt him to say that, I could see.

“We don't know exactly how important he is, but he's pretty important in the Sharing,” I explained to Marco. “An opportunistic-looking grab in the pool is one thing, but if he just disappears, the yeerks are going to notice, and respond. They'll probably expose us all looking for him. If they suspect kidnapping, they'll wonder why the andalites targeted him. We'd need to move him out of the city, get him a new name and life somewhere far away from the yeerks, or he'd just be recaptured. We don't have the resources to do that. And they might take Jake's family, to see if he told them anything. We don't know enough about the yeerks, about what they know and how they'll respond, to know how to pull off that sort of grab.”

“Yet,” Jake said.

“Yet,” I agreed.

I looked across the construction site. Tobias was fluttering down. I couldn't see where he'd landed, but I didn't have to. He'd be on the spot where the andalite had died, paying his respects. Tobias had been the last to leave the andalite, and I wondered how strong a bond they'd formed in the few moments they'd had together.

Emotionally and physically, the war had changed Tobias the most. But it had changed all of us. And we needed to fight back.


	3. Chapter 3

After my homework and chores, I morphed horse and went for a run. I just ran across our horse paddock, some of the other horses joining me, and let myself get lost in the speed and the scents on the wind. It wasn't flying, but it was an exhilarating experience in its own right. And falling wouldn't kill me instantly.

I had no idea how to hurt the yeerks. Clearly random forays into the yeerk pool were not going to be effective, not when weighed against the risks. And if we kept breaking in, the yeerks were going to beef up security. What we needed was information.

I got to the other side of the paddock and stopped, breathing hard. Calm down. Demorph. Slip through the fence.

I found the tree with “Cassie + Jake” carved into it, counted three trees over, and dug until my fingers hit metal. I pulled up the little box, brushed my hands off on my knees, and opened it. Inside, under a pen, some spare paper and a list of random facts and inferences about yeerks, was a short list of known Controllers. People I'd recognised at the school and the yeerk pool. Mostly teachers and classmates, which made sense given the entrance I'd been hanging around. A couple of people who worked at The Gardens with my mom. A cashier at a shop I went to sometimes, whose name I didn't know – I'd just listed them as “cashier”. I didn't have a strong personal connection with any of them. I didn't have a strong personal connection with many people. That surprises a lot of people. People say I'm nice, and compassionate, and give others the benefit of the doubt. They expect me to love people and people to love me. But caring about everyone isn't the same as being sociable. People are exhausting to be around too much, and I don't stand out to people. I'm “the vet's kid”. I'm “that girl who's always hanging out with Rachel”. I'm “the black girl”. I'm “the girl who likes animals”. So there wasn't a single person on that list who I could just start hanging out with without it seeming strange.

There wasn't a single person on that list who was a serious threat to my cover. I didn't have a single close friend or family member whom I was sure was living out a secret nightmare, enslaved in their own head. What a thing to be sad about.

Rachel's connection with Assistant Principal Chapman's daughter Melissa looked like our best bet.

I carefully reburied the box, strew some forest debris over the site, and went home.


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel called us over to her place the next night under the guise of needing homework help. While I doubted that the yeerks would waste manpower monitoring all phone communications, if there were Controllers in any of our houses it was quite possible our phones were tapped. We knew that Jake's brother, at least, was one, so we'd all just pretended to have a study group. I don't know how she got in touch with Tobias to call him over. I didn't ask.

Rachel’s room was exactly what you’d expect from looking at her. It was colour-coordinated, decked out in pink and cream, with a bedspread that matched the quilt cover. A couple of little pillows on the bed had been sitting at jaunty angles until we’d all sat on it and messed them up. A somewhat worn stuffed bear that I knew to be a childhood toy named Mister Claws sat on a cane chair in one corner. Her family was well-off enough that she had a computer in her bedroom, and on the wall next to it was a corkboard with little notices and colour-coordinated pushpins. Next to that was a poster of Jeremy Jason McCole, teen star of the hit show Power House, smiling an impossibly cute smile at the camera; it was probably taken from one of those teen magazines. Her pale rug hadn’t been vacuumed, and a couple of surfaces were a little dusty, but apart from that the only sign of anything being out of place was a couple of textbooks propped open on her pillow, marked with post-it notes.

I had no idea where she found the time to make even her room look like something out of a design magazine, but she did.

“I'm pretty sure Melissa's a Controller,” Rachel said when we were sure we Animorphs were alone.

“Oh, that's great,” Marco groaned. “That’s just freaking brilliant.”

“What makes you think that she's a Controller?” I asked.

“Something's off. I noticed at gymnastics practice today, but I think it's been off for a while. We used to be really close, you know? But now she doesn't want to hang out, or talk to me, or anything. I invited her to go shopping and she blew me off. She wouldn't talk about why. It's like she's just not interested in, well, anything, any more. Not even gymnastics. The whole time it was like she was... going through the motions.”

“Maybe something else is going on?”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

“It'd make sense that she's a Controller, given her father,” Jake said thoughtfully. “Save a security risk.”

“You live with Tom and you're not a Controller,” Marco answered, earning a dirty look.

“Whether or not she's a Controller,” I said, “we need to get in that house and close to her dad.”

“By the way, I just want to point out that I do not like using a friend this way,” Rachel added.

“We're helping her in the long run,” I pointed out. “You're protecting your friend.”

“If Melissa doesn't want to hang out with Rachel, we might have to hide out as small animals again,” Jake said.

“Yeah,” Marco said, “I can see that going really well.”

Rachel sighed. Her gaze drifted over her textbooks, and I knew what she was thinking – she was remembering when whether we could get away with not doing homework was our biggest concern. Her gaze drifted up to her poster, across to her noticeboard. She froze.

“What is it?” I asked.

Rachel walked across the room and pulled a photo down from the board. “I went to Melissa's birthday a couple of years ago. Her father took this picture of us. He'd just given her her birthday present.”

“So?” Marco asked.

“So.” Rachel turned the photo around so that we could see it. A younger Rachel, about ten, one arm wrapped around Melissa's shoulders. They were both grinning at the camera. In Melissa's arms was a little bundle of black and white fluff. “Her birthday present was a cat.”


	5. Chapter 5

"Look! A kitty door!" Jake pointed.

"Where?" Marco asked.

"See the lines of light? At the bottom of the regular door?"

"Oh, yeah," Marco said. "I wish the moon were out. I can't see a thing."

The four of us were cowering behind a hedge that bordered the Chapmans' lawn. They lived in a pretty normal-looking suburban home. You know: two stories, a garage, a lawn. Nothing to make you think that the person who lived there was part of a huge alien conspiracy to take over the world. Tobias perched on the hedge, not looking very happy about being on the ground.

"Let me just ask you this," Marco whispered. "Why did it have to be Chapman? I was afraid of Chapman even before we found out he was a Controller."

"You're not still upset over that detention he gave you?" Rachel asked. "Look, if you're going to listen to your CD player in math class with an earphone hidden under your hair, you have to remember not to start singing along."

"Yeah, that was only slightly stupid, Marco," Jake agreed.

"I still say Chapman never would have given me a whole week's detention if he was totally human."

"I have a question," I said. "How do we get Melissa's cat to come outside?"

“That's a good question,” Jake said eventually.

“We could... call it?” I suggested.

“I think that might be noticed,” Rachel said. “Four kids crouching in the bushes calling 'here Fluffer'.”

“The cat's name is _Fluffer_?” Marco asked. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Fluffer McKitty,” Rachel said.

Marco wheezed into his fist, clearly trying not to laugh out loud. “Who names a cat _Fluffer McKitty_?!”

“A ten year old girl does,” Rachel answered coolly.

“So how do we get Fluffer's attention?” I asked.

[Maybe it's already outside,] Tobias said. [What does it look like?]

“Black and white,” Rachel whispered. “You know, in patches.”

[I'll look around.] Tobias launched into the air and worked to get lift. High over our heads, he started gliding in lazy circles.

“You know what we need?" Rachel said. "We need another kitty. We should have thought of that. Then we could have the second cat call out to Fluffer."

Marco turned to stare at her. "MeowFluffer, comeoutmeow, meow come and play meow?"

“Cats are territorial,” I pointed out. “A second cat might bring him out to fight. Pity we don't have one.”

“Fighting cats.” Marco nodded. “I’m sure one of those would be great fun to acquire.”

That… was a good point, but I decided not to drag the conversation out further. "Rachel, you need to remember if you go in there tonight that you have to stay in cat character," I said. "Most people would just think it was weird if a cat acted strangely. But Chapman may be able to guess what's going on if Fluffer suddenly starts acting un-catlike."

"So you're saying I shouldn't try eating with a fork or changing the channels on the TV?"

Everyone laughed -- quietly and nervously, but it was laughter just the same.

Suddenly Tobias dropped out of the sky, then drifted over us in a lazy circle and called down, [Got him.]

He settled back on the branch. He was really an amazing animal. Scary, too. His gentle nature didn't really shine through a predator's gaze. The gaze of a hawk when it is looking right at you is incredibly intimidating.

"You're kidding. You found Fluffer?" Rachel asked.

[Hey, it's easy. Spotting prey is what I do. Or what a hawk does, anyway. Actually, there are maybe six or eight cats running around the neighbourhood. Also, three dogs and an amazing amount of rats and mice.]

"Rats?" That got Marco's attention. "Rats? Here? This is suburbia. I mean, it's a lot better than where I live. They have rats?"

[There are rats everywhere,] Tobias said. [Rats and mice and all kinds of plump, juicy...] He fell silent, embarrassed.

"Get a grip, Tobias," Marco said. "Don't start eating rats, all right? I don't know if I can have someone who eats rats for a friend."

That was going too far.

"I ate a live spider," Jake pointed out. "Does that mean you and I can't be friends?" From his tone of voice I could tell he was angry, too. Time to calm everyone down.

“When did you eat a spider?” I asked.

“Lizard. Spying on Chapman.” He shrugged.

“Anybody else hungry now?” Marco asked.

“If we could all stop talking about eating things,” Rachel said, “how are we going to get this cat?”

[He's this way,] Tobias said. [Follow me.]

He flew off, but kept low. We took off after him. Even flying at minimum speed, Tobias was too fast for us to keep up with, so he had to circle back again and again. We had a hard time keeping him in sight.

"This doesn't look too strange," I joked. "The four of us running down the street looking up in the sky."

[There,] Tobias called down. [See that yard with the two trees?]

"Yeah. Just to our left?"

[That's the one. The cat you're looking for is stalking a mouse, right behind the trunk of the nearest tree. ]

"Okay, we can't all go traipsing over some stranger's yard," Rachel pointed out. "I'll go with Cassie."

Marco held up the kitty carrier we had brought along. "Don't you need this?"

"Not yet. I'll grab Fluffer and bring him back over here. You two guys just stand here, looking casual."

Rachel and I stepped onto the lawn. The house was dark. Maybe no one was home. That would be good.

"Go left," Rachel suggested. We circled the tree.

"Hey, Fluffer," Rachel said in a high, talking-to- animals voice. "Here, kitty kitty. Remember me?"

"There he is."

"I see him." She squatted down and held her hand out toward the cat. "Hey, Fluffer, Fluffer. It's me, Rachel."

Fluffer flattened his ears back along his skull. He looked from me to Rachel and back again.

"Come on, Fluffer, it's me. Come on, boy."

The cat kept hissing. “Uh, Rachel... has Fluffer been fixed?”

"Have you been fixed, Fluffer McKitty?" she cooed. "Why do we care?" she asked.

"Because pound for pound, a tomcat is like one of the toughest, most dangerous little things around."

"Who, Fluffer? My little kitty friend Fluffer?"

"Even if he is fixed, a male cat, out at night in hunting mode?" I shook my head. "We should have worn gloves." We had gloves at the clinic for just this sort of thing! Why hadn't I prepared?!

"Oh, come on. He's a sweet kitty cat." She reached a hand for him.

"Hhhhhhssssss!"

In a movement too fast for my human eyes to see, Fluffer swiped out with one paw. Three bloody scratches appeared on the back of Rachel's hand and Fluffer shot straight up the tree.

"Owww!"

"Gloves would definitely have been a good idea," I said.

"How are you guys doing?" Jake whispered, just loudly enough for us to hear him.

"Wonderful," Rachel said through gritted teeth. "I'm bleeding and Fluffer is up the tree."

I heard giggling. The boys were laughing at us. Great.

"This was supposed to be the easy part," Rachel said. "I figured, okay, we go and acquire Fluffer's DNA, and then the hard stuff begins."

"We have a cat up a tree," I moaned, fully aware of how pathetic the whole situation was. "Do you know how hard it is to get a cat down out of a tree?" I wished I'd thought to bring a trap from the clinic. Then we wouldn't be in this position at all. “I think the easiest way is to lure him down with prey and grab him while he's distracted,” I said. We all looked at Tobias.

[No. Absolutely not. That is where I draw the line.]

“He's right,” I agreed. “This is risky and Tobias can't morph to heal himself. It's gotta be one of us. Tobias, can you find us a... a mouse or something?”

[Can do.] Tobias took off again.

“So, who then?” Marco asked.

“Jake and I acquired a lizard, so we already have sneaking-around morphs, and Rachel's gonna be the cat,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “So the most logical choice...”

“Nope. I'm not turning into a little mouse so a cat that Rachel's going to turn into will try to eat me. Not happening.”

“I'll do it,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes. “You are such a coward, Marco.”

“The word is _survivor_. Unlike you, your word is _delusions of immortality_. Well, three words.”

[Got something for you. A baby mouse. A mean baby mouse. It keeps trying to bite me.] Tobias flew in a low, tight circle overhead, disappearing behind the tree branches, then reappearing. [Are you ready?]

Rachel took a deep breath and held her hands out like catching a baby mouse from an airborne hawk was a perfectly normal thing to do. “I'm ready.”

Tobias flew low and slow, flared, and dropped something small carefully into Rachel's hands.

"Don't let it bite you!" I warned her. "It could give you an infection."

"Wonderful," Rachel muttered. "Just one more fun aspect of this night." The mouse was struggling in her hands.

"You should all get rabies shots," I added. "Seriously. Those and whatever other animal shots the doctor recommends. I already have mine. But if we're going to be handling wild animals... In the meantime, be careful to keep his teeth away from you."

"I wasn't planning on feeding him my finger," Rachel said.

"Hey, wait." I leaned closer and pulled a couple of Rachel's fingers back to get a better look at Tobias' 'mouse'. "That's not a mouse. That's a shrew. See the eyes? They're too small. And the tail is wrong. That's not a baby mouse, Tobias, it's a full-grown shrew."

[Sorry. Is that bad?]

“I don't know. I just know it isn't a mouse. But since cats chase string, I don't think it matters.”

"Wait a minute," Marco said, beginning to grin. "Rachel is going to become a shrew? How will we know when she's changed? How do you become what you already are?"

Everyone was too nervous to find the joke very funny. We felt kind of stupid, standing around on some stranger's lawn playing with rodents. I mean, there are times when the whole thing just seems so utterly insane, you know? I'd basically wrapped my head around the existence (and presence) of aliens. But all this messing about in a daisy-chan of DNA acquisition from ordinary Earth animals somehow seemed a whole extra level of silly.

"Okay, I have to concentrate on acquiring, so everyone shut up," Rachel said. She closed her eyes a moment and the shrew stopped struggling. “Ok, done. Do we still need this?”

“Anyone else want a shrew?” Jake asked. We all shook our heads.

"Okay, little shrew, thanks for your help. You can go now." She placed the rodent carefully on the grass, and it sped away.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Jake said doubtfully.

"Really?" Marco was sarcastic. "You're not sure it's a good idea for Rachel to turn into a shrew in order to lure a vicious cat down from a tree so she can morph into that cat and sneak into the assistant principal's house? What worries you about that plan?"

I was worried, too. "You know, Rachel, usually a cat will play with a mouse a little bit. But sometimes they don't. Sometimes they go right for the neck bite. The mouse -- or the shrew -- dies instantly."

Rachel didn't seem concerned. She glanced up at Tobias before rubbing her hands together. "Okay, let's do this."

Rachel's morph was messy. Messier than mine usually was. She's had a lot less practise, and she'd never gone small before. I watched as she started to shrink and her skull stretched out into a rodent's face. Her bald tail shot out of her spine long before her little shrew body sprouted fur. Her ears remained weirdly human until the last, when they finally flattened and stretched into shrew ears.

“Rachel?” Jake asked gently. “You ok?”

She didn't respond.

“Maybe she can't hear,” Marco said.

“Do you have any idea how good a shrew's hearing is?” I asked. “She's probably having trouble with – ” the tiny shrew shot away under my feet... “instincts.”

We lost her, for a moment, in the grass, until Tobias pointed out her small quivering form. As we walked toward her, though, she ran off again.

“Rachel!” I hissed. “You have to get a grip! Fear and wariness are normal for tiny rodents. You can't let it control you!” But she was running, dodging around our feet and hands, under a fence and away.

[I got her.] Tobias glided after her. [Rachel, it's Tobias. The shrew is in control. You have to assert yourself! Tell it to stop running.] He dipped out of sight behind a bush for a moment, then came back into view with something small struggling in his claws. [Okay, Rachel. It's okay. It's just me. I have you. Try to be calm. Think about something human. Think about school. Remember school?]

About ten seconds later she answered. [I'm okay, Tobias. You can set me down.]

He did. [Did my talons hurt you?]

[No. I don't think so. Boy, that was totally different than the elephant brain. Or the eagle. They're both so calm and mellow compared to this mind. ]

“Small prey animals are going to have a pretty strong panic reaction,” I said.

[Look, let's just do this and get it over with, okay? I'm not enjoying the shrew experience.] She didn't sound happy.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to maintain control down there?" Marco asked, peering down at her. "You still look a little nervous. Your tail is twitching and your little nose is sniffing like crazy."

[Yeah, I know I'm still nervous. Let's just do this. You'll have to take me back to the tree where Fluffer is. I don't know what direction it is.]

Marco reached down and scooped her into his hands. He peered into her eyes. "I've never seen you look lovelier, Rachel. Very cover girl."

We walked down the block. Marco set her down at the bottom of the tree where Fluffer was still hiding out on a high branch.

[You guys had better back off a little,] Rachel said.

"Not too far," Jake said. "We have to be able to get between you and Fluffer fast."

[Oh, I can kick Fluffer's butt,] she joked nervously.

"Uh-huh," Marco said dryly. "Cat versus mouse. Who would you bet on?"

"Haven't you ever seen Itchy and Scratchy?" I asked. "Mouse, definitely. Besides, she's not a mouse."

For several tense moments, we stood ready to pounce as Rachel sat motionless under the tree, quivering. I thought about advising her to walk around invitingly for a bit, but she'd probably panic again if she tried. It wasn't necessary, anyway; Fluffer seemed to have forgotten us and was creeping slowly along a branch above Rachel, eyes fixed on her tiny form.

Fluffer pounced!

Rachel froze. We did not.

Marco grabbed Fluffer in mid-pounce. Fluffer rewarded him with a nasty slash of his claws. Marco yelled and almost dropped the cat. Jake grabbed Fluffer by the nape of the neck and I shoved an open cat carrier under him.

Together, we managed to stuff the squalling, hissing, slashing Fluffer into the carrier and close the door.

Rachel was already morphing out of the shrew body as fast as she could.

"I'm bleeding!" Marco cried.

"We're all bleeding," I said. "I told you guys: Kitties can be nasty when you get on their nerves."

Rachel shot up from the ground. "Ugh! Ugh! I'm never doing that morph again," she said, as soon as she had a normal tongue and lips. She glanced over her shoulder, checking that she was human, and shuddered. Rachel doesn't do vulnerability or fear. Not if she can help it.

Jake shook his head. "I should have done it. I should have used my lizard morph to lure the cat down from the tree."

Rachel shook her head. "No. That freaked you out."

"And now you're the one who's freaked out," Jake said. "But don't worry, you'll get over it. Mostly. At least you didn't eat a spider."

"Yeah. Look, I'm just tired, okay? Let me acquire this pain-in-the-butt cat and get on with this."

"Are you still up for it?" I asked. "Acquiring two new morphs in one night?"

"I shouldn't have let you do the mouse. Shrew. Whatever," Jake said. He was still looking guilty.

"I volunteered,” Rachel pointed out. “Besides, since when do you let me do things? What are you, my master? I don't think so. Come on.” She grinned and cracked her knuckles. “Let me see how Fluffer likes me, now that I'm bigger than he is."

Fluffer was asleep in the cat carrier. Sleeping like nothing at all was going on. He even purred as Rachel acquired him.

She caught me smiling at her. "What?"

"I was just thinking how you look like the same old Rachel, but now you also have an elephant, a shrew, an eagle, and a cat inside you. That's four morphs. That's more than any of us," I explained. "We don't really know very much about this morphing thing still. We don't even know if there's a limit to how many morphs you can do."

"I guess we'll find out," Marco said darkly. "Probably at the worst possible time."

"Look, guys,” Rachel said, “I've acquired Fluffer now. But maybe we should do the rest of this tomorrow night. I'm ... I don't know if I'm at my best right now."

"Another night," Jake agreed. He looked relieved.

"I guess we can let Fluffer go now," I said. If Rachel wasn't up to monitoring Chapman tonight, well, we had a lot of time and we only had one Rachel. I opened the carrier and the cat climbed out cautiously. I watched him run off into the night.

"Probably going off to kill that shrew," Marco speculated. Rachel shot him a filthy look.


	6. Chapter 6

Humans are incredibly social animals. There are whole parts of our brain geared to subconsciously processing body language, tone, and previous known history of the people around us to give us a sense of all sorts of things about them. Their status, their moods, their interests, their state of mind. The ability to interpret such things is necessarily broad. Our instincts are useful, but not always accurate.

So on the bus ride home, I tried to identify what exactly was going on in my head that was telling me that Rachel wasn't up to this mission.

She had looked a little out of sorts. But she was probably freaked out by the shrew. I had no doubts about her ability to pull off a cat. A graceful, generally relaxed creature whose immediate reaction to conflict or fear was to pull out the claws? Rachel pretty much was a cat already. Her weariness... well, we were all tired. We were all fighting and we were probably all suffering horrible nightmares about the yeerk pool and the construction site... I shuddered. No need to think of that.

I was probably just worried about her. As aggressive as Rachel appeared when she wanted, stealth missions probably weren't going to be her favourite thing. She'd picked the biggest battle morph and the biggest bird she could find. And she was worried about her friend, who may or may not be a Controller.

Who did I have to worry about? My parents. I didn't have any brothers or sisters. My parents and the Animorphs were the only people I was really close to. The only ones that I, personally, had to worry about. Rachel had other friends, and two sisters. Jake had his old basketball friends and a brother who was definitely a Controller.

Was I jealous of Melissa? Was that what was causing the nagging feeling that Rachel shouldn't go in there alone? Petty jealousy? If that was the case, then I shouldn't do anything. But if there actually was a problem...

It was, theoretically, quite easy to send in backup. Either Jake or I could go in as a lizard. We could morph a fly, or a... a flea or... well, anything that small would be creepy, but we could probably do it. Brain complexity didn't seem to be a factor, although I didn't want to test that with something as primitive as an insect brain unless we absolutely had to. But the whole point of going with Fluffer was to avoid all the complicated sneaking around. And what would I say to Rachel? That I didn't think she could handle the mission on her own?

No. I could trust my friend. I had to.

But could I trust her friend? Melissa Chapman, a Controller. It seemed obvious when I thought about it. Her father was pretty important to the yeerks, as far as we could tell, although I wasn’t sure why an assistant principal would be so important. He was important in the Sharing, at least. And I didn’t like the thought of Rachel getting close to her like this, getting close to one of them, an enemy hiding behind a friendly face. If she slipped up…

But Jake managed it every day, didn’t he? He sat across the table from a Controller every night and Tom, to our knowledge, suspected nothing. The yeerks seemed to have lost interest in finding the ‘kids who set off fireworks in the construction site’; nobody had tried to talk Jake into more Sharing meetings or grabbed him in his sleep (and we were so, so vulnerable, because if Tom did someday simply grab Jake in his sleep, then the yeerks would know everything), nobody had been asking around, no police were trying to hunt us down. So they’d either moved on with the investigation, or figured that since the kids weren’t saying anything, they weren’t worth the effort to try to find. I had to wonder what had made Tom stop suspecting Jake. Did Jake have to say something, do something, to allay suspicion? Whatever it was, he hadn’t told me.

It was entirely possible that the sudden appearance of ‘andalite bandits’ in the yeerk pool had pushed a bunch of bratty eyewitnesses off the yeerk priority list, of course.

I needed paper. I needed to write things down, record my thoughts before they ran away from me and my memory pulled up neat, edited versions. But I didn’t want to write such things in a place as public as a bus, and besides, I didn’t have a notepad with me. Just an empty cat carrier with a few white hairs lying on the bottom.

I frowned at the hairs. Picked them up.

_DNA, huh?_

Hairs don’t, strictly speaking, contain DNA, but the cells at their roots do. And it seemed to me that it would be a huge advantage to determine exactly what we could acquire and what we couldn’t. So far, we’d touched living animals to acquire them, and I sort of suspected that that was the only way to do it, because there was no way that acquiring an animal was just a matter of absorbing DNA. But what if I was wrong? Could I acquire a cat from a few hairs? A bear from a bearskin rug? A snake from a DNA extract?

I picked up the hairs and pressed them between my palms, making sure my skin made contact with as much of the hairs’ surface as possible, so that if there were cells on the hairs, I wouldn't miss them.

I thought of Fluffer McKitty.

I could normally feel it when I acquired an animal; at least, I thought I could. The sensation was so subtle that I had no way of knowing whether my mind simply made it up. I felt nothing holding the hairs, though.

Just to test, I tried the morph, focusing on changing my eyes, ready to stop immediately if I felt my skin itch or my ears move or anything visible like that.

Nothing happened.

Okay, so hairs weren't enough to acquire a morph. I'd already suspected as much, since the acquisition process needed to involve more than just DNA. Pity; that would have made everything much easier.

Of course, it was possible that my own doubt was hindering the experiment; that I wasn't able to acquire the cat because I already believed I couldn't. Or that I had acquired him, but trying to so tightly control a morph that I didn't believe was possible in a public place had simply been too difficult. I'd try to morph the cat again later in private, but that didn't solve the doubt problem. The real difficulty with morphing experiments was that it was impossible to eliminate that kind of bias. I was researcher and subject, and even if I could convince the others to help me, they'd have their own doubts and roadblocks. Blind experiments of any kind were impossible because we had to focus on exactly what we were doing in order to succeed.

Well, maybe not blind experiments _of any kind_...

I spent the rest of the trip trying to design experiments that, if I could convince the other Animorphs to cooperate, might yield some interesting information about how morphing worked. It was better than devising strategies for spying on yeerks.

Better than thinking about all the ways that my best friend could get killed.


	7. Chapter 7

First, the Chapmans were out. Then it was Jake's father's birthday. Technically only Rachel was needed on the mission, but it felt wrong to go without full backup. After nearly a week, we had a day where everyone was free.

It was the day before the mission, and I was in one of the old, unused horse stalls in the barn. A scalpel from the surgery sat on a clean tissue on top of the stall door. Five minutes ago, it had been sterile.

I stared once more at the perfect, unmarked skin on the back of my hand, cursed quietly, and nicked myself once again with the scalpel.

The barn door opened. “Cassie?” It was Rachel's voice. “Your mum said you were out here. Are you, you know, around?”

“Hey Rachel.” I walked out of the stall, remembering not to leave the scalpel behind. “What's up?”

“Not much.” She shrugged. “What were you doing in there?”

“Trying to morph injuries.”

“You were healing yourself with morphing?”

“No, I was trying not to. You can morph with your ears still pierced. I want to be able to do that with other, new injuries.”

“Um... why?”

“Because eventually, one of us is going to injure ourselves in an obvious way, in front of witnesses. And when that happens, that person is going to be out of the fight until they heal naturally, unless we have a better way to explain instant healing.”

“Do you have contingency plans for any random thing that might happen?”

“Actually it was just scientific curiosity. But that's one example of how it can be useful.” I sat on an empty crate. “So. Cat, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Looking forward to it?”

Rachel shrugged. “I practised the morph.” She grinned. “It's pretty cool. Better than the shrew. Like, the cat just doesn't have any worries, you know? I mean, there are things it's scared of. Predators. Bigger cats. But if they're not there, it's just... calm. Confident. And the grace! Every gymnast everywhere is just uncoordinated compared to a cat.”

“It sounds pretty cool.”

“It is. And the vision! It's not better, really, except in low light – and it is awesome in low light – but it's like the world comes to life around you. Movement is the important thing. Anything moves, and the cat sees it.”

“But you're still bothered about something.”

“Well, yeah.” She sighed. “Melissa's a good friend. The idea of her being a slave to some alien slug in her brain... I mean, my cousin and my friend? Really?”

“We don't know that. She might be free.”

“You didn't see her at gymnastics. Something is definitely up with her. But the thing is, even if she's not a Controller, something is up and I _didn't notice_. I'm supposed to be her _friend_. Without her parents... Cassie, I don't know if she has anyone else. Not if she's pulled away from her other friends like with me. What if everyone failed her?”

I nodded slowly. It occurred to me how easily it could've been Rachel and Melissa at the mall that night instead of Rachel and me. I mean, I'd only been there because Rachel had dragged me along as part of a random agreement after she'd helped with my chores. Otherwise she would have gone with Melissa, or one of the other girls from gymnastics or school. Melissa could easily have taken my place witnessing the andalite's death and left with the power to morph, and I'd have no clue about the invasion. What if my family came home one day acting differently, and Rachel couldn't be there for me and I didn't understand that she was off fighting evil? What if I was a Controller, and Rachel was wrapped up with a Cassie-free Animorphs and nobody noticed?

“Are you up for this mission?” I asked.

“Yes. Hell yes.” She met my gaze and grinned, and I was pretty sure I saw genuine enthusiasm there. “Let's kick yeerk butt.”

“You mean gather information.”

“I mean gather information, so that we can kick yeerk butt.”


	8. Chapter 8

We should have sent in two people.

That thought was nagging at me from the moment Rachel, crouched in the Chapmans' neighbours hedges, turned into a cat. I knew it was insecurity talking. It was risky, yes, but sending in more would increase the risk, not decrease it.

Jake was on backup duty, lurking in the neighbour's yard and trying not to look like a stalker. Marco and I were on catherding duty. Our job was to keep Fluffer McKitty far away from the Chapman household. I figured that after just one attack, the yeerks might not be overly suspicious of every animal they encountered, but two Fluffers would definitely tip Chapman off. Tobias had the most difficult job. He was our eyes to spot Fluffer, but he was also acting as Jake's relay to Rachel since he was the only one who could thoughtspeak without morphing. So he spent most of the time in a tree above Jake, and some of it ducking off to help us every time we lost track of the cat.

[I still say we just put the cat in a carrier again,] he grumbled as he circled. [He's behind the house to the left. Sorry, I meant my left. Your right.]

Tobias was too far away for us to answer him, but I did have a cat carrier tucked under my arm in case we did get a chance to grab Fluffer. There just wasn't any point in going in and getting our flesh shredded unless we had to. Marco and I circled the house, staying far enough away that we wouldn't startle the cat but close enough to keep him in sight. Tobias headed back to Jake. We were only a few houses away so he had no problem thought-speaking with us, but he couldn't hear our replies and the messages Jake wanted to relay to Rachel at the same time.

Marco carefully circled the cat to come and stand near me. There was no reason to prefer that position over where he'd just been, but Marco couldn't stand having nobody to talk to when he was tense. “We could be at home watching cartoons right now,” he said. “There's a Powerpuff Girls marathon. I could be watching Bubbles beat up an evil monkey instead of not watching Rachel stalk an evil alien.”

“Do you think he'll stay here? I bet we can keep him here.”

“He's a cat, cats don't stay anywhere. Especially if he meets another cat. I still think we should all go home and forget about the yeerks.”

“I'm not having this discussion again.”

“Of course not, because you think we're the freaking Planeteers.” He thought about that. “We'd make good Planeteers. You would be Earth, of course. Tobias would be Heart. Rachel's full of hot air, she can be Wind.”

“Rachel's Fire.”

“You're right, Jake's Wind. I guess that makes me Water. Do I look like a Water to you?”

“You certainly like to dribble on.”

“Oooh. I hate to criticise an amateur, Cassie, but that was terrible. I don't think puns are your thing.”

[Guys!] Tobias sounded urgent. [Guys, we need Fluffer in the Chapmans' yard RIGHT NOW!]

“Why do – ” I began, but Marco wasn't waiting around to ask questions. He leapt out at the cat, startling it across the yard. Tobias swooped in behind, chasing him towards the Chapmans'. Marco and I followed as quickly as we dared, just in time to see Fluffer zip across the Chapmans' front lawn and through their open front door.

The whole family was on the lawn, Assistant Principal Chapman talking brusquely to a crying Melissa, clearly trying to brush her off as he headed for his car. Under his arm was a cat carrier.

Inside was Fluffer. Rachel.


	9. Chapter 9

“Battle morphs,” Jake whispered, appearing next to us.

[If any of you turn into anything in front of Melissa then after I escape I will KILL YOU ALL MYSELF,] Rachel shouted in our heads. [If she gets any more suspicious they'll infest her! I know you can hear me! No morphing!]

Melissa certainly looked confused. She glanced after the black and white blur that had disappeared into the house, then back at the cage under her father's arm. "Fluffer?" Melissa said. "But..." She tried to peer inside the cage.

Chapman was quick. "No, sweetheart," he said. "This isn't Fluffer at all. It's some other cat that snuck into the basement. He's different. I'm taking him to the shelter so his owners can pick him up."

"But why didn't you just tell me that?"

Chapman looked confused. "I... I didn't notice you."

Melissa stepped back like she'd been slapped. "But Daddy, I was crying."

"Sorry." Chapman shrugged. He shoved the cage into the backseat.

We didn't need to be told what to do. By the time Chapman had secured the cage and got into the drivers' seat, we were most of the way to our bird morphs. I retained my size and hands as long as I could, so I could stash our clothing under a bush two houses away. Leftover clothing would be a terrible way to blow our covers.

[Tobias?] Jake asked as we struggled to lift ourselves into the air.

[North.] His voice was faint. Already, the car was almost out of thought-speak range.

[How long has she been in morph?] I asked.

[At least an hour,] Jake said. [We need to get her out as quick as possible.]

He was right about that. No way were we trapping two Animorphs in morph over two missions.

[Rachel says Visser Three commanded Chapman to take her to the “nearest landing site” to meet him,] Tobias relayed. His voice was grim. [I think we can all guess where that is, given the direction we're heading.]

[The construction site,] Jake replied.

They were right. With traffic, even in the middle of the night, we'd caught up to Chapman by the time he pulled over at the construction site.

[Battle morphs,] Jake said. [Let's go.]

[Wait.] Marco circled the mass of dilapidated buildings. [This looks like an ambush.]

[Then we get ambushed! We have to save Rachel.]

[Or we could save Rachel without anybody getting killed. Anybody have birds with good night vision?]

[No,] I said, [we don't.]

[We make do with what we've got, then. We need to check the buildings around the landing site before we do any morphing.] He drifted down.

The landing site was obvious. There was still one flat, clean area big enough for the Blade ship to land. The spot where the andalite prince had died.

Chapman pulled the cat carrier out of the back and walked through the construction site. Even he looked nervous, glancing about and jumping at every shadow. Rachel hissed at him. I noticed that his forearms were badly shredded and bleeding.

[See? Nervous,] Marco said, landing on a half-ruined building and glancing inside. [He's expecting us. Ambush.]

[Or it could be because he's expecting Visser Three,] I pointed out, swooping down to peer into another building. Nobody there.

Right on cue, lights appeared in the sky. Small, red pinpricks representing three Bug fighters. And the larger lights, like a demon's eyes. The Blade ship.


	10. Chapter 10

Something about Visser Three always radiates menace.

Maybe it's his body language, close enough to human to be meaningful to me. Maybe it's the massive armed entourage he travels with everywhere. Maybe I'm projecting due to a combination of the fear telepathically pressed into me by the dying andalite prince, and the horrible things I'd seen him do with my own eyes. I hoped that facing Visser Three at the end of every yeerk encounter wasn't going to become habit.

His hork-bajir and taxxon guards stepped off the ship first. Fewer to deal with Rachel than there had been for Elfangor; a mere ten hork-bajir and four taxxons, armed with natural blades and teeth and very artificial Dracon beams. Far too many for us to take. Nobody stepped out of the Bug fighters. Even if there weren't guards walking around, those ships had weapons that could disintegrate other ships. We'd have stood no chance against them.

Now sure that the area was free from ambush, we all hid and demorphed.

[Good going Marco, now it's going to be impossible to save her,] Tobias snapped, circling above.

[Fine, next time I'll say nothing and you can all walk into potential traps.]

“So now what?” I whispered, too far gone to thought-speak.

Marco grinned with his newly human mouth. He pointed. At an old, ruined bulldozer.

“You want... there are so, so many things wrong with that plan.” The chance that the construction equipment would even move was tiny. It was unlikely to do any damage to spaceships designed for battle. We'd already seen yeerk ships vaporise construction equipment.

“Got a better idea?” He was already growing gorilla-sized.

“Fine. Fine.” I didn't have a morph with hands, but it was dark. It probably wouldn't matter. Probably.

“You two are a distraction,” Jake said. “Tobias and I grab Rachel and then we're gone. Be ready to flee at any moment.”

[Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be smoke by then,] Marco replied.

“Not helping, dude.”

We broke up. Jake went tiger as Marco crept, as best a gorilla can, to the bulldozer. I went for a crane stationed behind the nearest Bug fighter and prayed that the controls were easy to figure out. Tobias rode on my shoulder; without him, I couldn't communicate with the others out of morph.

Visser Three had slowly, dramatically walked out of the ship to stop in front of Chapman, who held the cat carrier up. He peered inside. [This is the andalite bandit?]

“Yes, Visser.”

He leaned closer until his face was mere inches from the cage. I almost wished that Rachel would reach through the bars and scratch him. But she wasn't that stupid. [Not so brave now are you, my little andalite bandit?]

[Be ready,] Jake said. I glanced down at the crane controls. On button, vertical stick, horizontal stick... seemed easy enough.

[This is similar to the orange-and-black creature that invaded the pool,] Visser Three said.

"Yes, Visser," Chapman said. "They are a family of animals. Felines. These are the smallest."

[I see you damaged my servant Iniss two two six, andalite,] Visser Three said to Rachel. [No one ever accused you andalites of lacking courage. You are a race of fools, but brave. ]

He was wrong. Rachel hadn’t hurt this Iniss two two six. Rachel had hurt Chapman. Chapman's yeerk was fine, safe inside his skull.

[Why not answer me, andalite? I know you hear my words. This charade is pointless. I know what you are.] Rachel remained silent, and the Visser seemed to lose interest. [Now. Where is the girl? I have promised her to Iniss four five five. Iniss four five five is a spawn mate of yours, I believe. We will do the infestation aboard the mother ship, and I will have the girl returned tomorrow. Where is she?]

"Visser ... I ..." Chapman said.

[On three,] Jake said.

“Wait!” I hissed. “Tobias, tell Jake to hold off the attack!”

[But...]

“Just do it!”

[One...]

[Jake, wait. Cassie says to wait.]

A pause. [Okay. Why?]

“The girl. They're talking about Melissa.”

Tobias relayed the message.

[And?] Jake asked.

[Do you defy me?] The Visser's voice was like a hiss. The hiss of a snake.

"N-n-n-o, no, Visser." Chapman was shaking like a leaf. "I would never defy you. It's only... the host. Chapman. He and the woman rebelled."

“So,” I said, “Chapman didn't bring her. And he was clearly meant to. He's protecting her.”

[He and his wife both fought their hosts in the house,] Rachel reported when Tobias relayed the message. [They looked like they were having fits or something.]

[Aren't you able to control your host?] Visser Three sneered. [Do you think the andalite mind that still lives in this body never resists? Do you imagine that your human host is more powerful than my own andalite host?]

This wasn't going very well for Chapman. Either the real, human Chapman, or the human-Controller that called itself Chapman.

"Visser, I ... I only report the facts to you. M-m-my host is under control. But I am constantly in contact with humans. I occupy a responsible position in their society. I cannot have my host body causing me to twitch and shake. Humans see such things as signs of mental illness. I could lose my position. And I would no longer be of any use to you."

[You are barely of use to me now,] Visser Three sneered.

"Visser, my host begs leave to address you directly," Chapman said.

Visser Three hesitated. I saw his stalk eyes scan around, checking for any signs of threat. I remained very, very still, shielded by metal and shadows.

[I will allow the host to address me,] Visser Three said.

For a moment, nothing changed. Then, suddenly, Chapman sagged. It was like he was a marionette and someone had cut his strings.

He collapsed, straight down. His legs just twisted up under him.

He tried to stand up. But it was as if he didn't know how to make his legs work. They would jerk and suddenly kick out, but he could not stand. Finally, he gave up.

"Fisher," he mumbled. "Fisher Hree. Sor. . . I ... sorry. Visher. Visser. Visser Three."

The real, human Chapman had been out of control of his own body for so long he no longer remembered how to move or speak.

"Visser Three," he said again. His voice was slurry and strange.

[Speak, you fool,] Visser Three snapped. [Do you think I can stay here forever?]

"Visser Three. You... We had a deal. You know I never wanted to join you. My wife did. But I said no. But... but then my wife ... no longer my wife by then, of course." Suddenly he began to cry. I could see his tears very clearly. "My wife who was no longer my wife... my wife who was one of your creature... threatened... threatened to give you my daughter."

[Yes, yes, get to the point,] Visser Three said.

A hork-bajir moved closer. He muttered something to the Visser, then moved away. I couldn't hear or understand what the hork-bajir had said, but it looked as if he was reminding Visser Three that they shouldn't hang around too long.

"The point is," Chapman said, "that I agreed to be made into a host. I agreed to ... to ..." He looked like he was about to throw up. "I agreed to surrender my freedom. To become a Controller. To accept this filthy thing in my head. To accept your control. I agree... but only if you would spare my daughter."

It felt like my heart had stopped beating. Chapman had become a Controller to save Melissa? He had given more than his life to save his daughter?

[The situation has changed,] Visser Three said. [The Chapman person is an important part of our work. We cannot have him endangered by some uncontrollable human.]

"The girl -- Melissa -- is no threat. But…” Chapman struggled to lift himself up once again with clumsy legs and awkward arms.

He rose to his knees. Then slowly, slowly, he stood up. He was wobbling and swaying, but he was standing. "The girl is no threat," he repeated in a stronger, more confident voice. "But I am."


	11. Chapter 11

[You? A threat?] Visser Three laughed. He reached out with one hand to push lightly on Chapman's chest. Chapman fell back, sprawled out on the dirt.

"If you harm my daughter I will fight you. I will fight you forever. Ask your yeerk if he believes me. He knows me better than anyone. Ask Iniss two two six if I will fight for my daughter."

Chapman closed his eyes. The tears stopped. Then his eyes opened again. He picked himself up quickly from the ground and stood before Visser Three. The yeerk slug was in charge again. He was once again a Controller.

Visser Three stared at him for a few long, calculating seconds. [The host will attempt to disrupt your work?]

"Yes, Visser. And the woman as well." He hesitated before going on. "I am of more use with a passive, voluntary host. But I am your tool, Visser. I will do as you command."

[Yes, you will certainly do as I command,] Visser Three said. [But you have brought me the andalite bandit.] He looked down at Rachel. [And this will occupy my time for a little while. Leave the girl, for now. Now get out. You tempt my patience. ]

Chapman didn't need a second invitation. He jumped in the car and tore out of there.

Melissa was safe. Hanging on by a tenuous thread as strong as Visser Three's patience and sanity, but safe for now. And there was nobody in our way. My hands went to the crane controls.

[Move out,] Visser Three yelled. The hork-bajir respond instantly to his command, one of them pausing to pick up Rachel in the cat carrier.

We should've put somebody on that carrier. I should be there as a lizard, letting Marco handle the construction equipment. Too late now.

[Let's go!] Jake cried.

It took me about two seconds to figure out how to use the crane. How to use it for combat, anyway. I wouldn't want to build anything with it. After some fiddling, I brought the arm down at full speed on top of the front of a Bug fighter. I was only expecting to dent it, to provide a distraction, but the Bug fighter’s front crumpled.

[Andalites!] The Visser shouted unnecessarily. [GET THEM!]

The roar of Marco's bulldozer coming to life nearly drowned out Tobias' cry as he swooped down toward the hork-bajir carrying Rachel and raked his talons across the Controller's eyes. It dropped the cage, screaming and trying to shield its face, but by then Tobias was already up and after Visser Three. Jake leapt from the shadows and crushed the flimsy plastic of the carrier in his jaws.

[Rachel. Out and demorph, now.]

Rachel was already gone. Over to my right, a Bug fighter exploded as a now-abandoned bulldozer plowed into it. This felt wrong. These were combat ships from space, they shouldn't be so flimsy.

About three seconds into the fight. Time to abandon my own construction equipment. I threw myself to the side just as the crane started glowing red, and seconds later, it was gone.

[CASSIE!!] Jake screamed in our minds as he roared. Tobias was fluttering around the Visser's head, diving over and over, leaving bloody claw marks along the Visser's skull and vulnerable eye stalks, but at Jake's scream, he wheeled away. I heard the enraged trumpeting of an elephant. Jake was already charging toward the remaining Bug fighter, the one that had shot my crane. It levelled its laser at him and Marco came out of nowhere, picked up the enraged tiger and rolled out of the way. The Bug fighter's weapons tracked the two, firing and tearing up the concrete, apparently not noticing the elephant charging it from behind until it was too late. Meanwhile, I was morphing osprey as fast as I could.

[I'm fine!] I shouted as soon as I could thought-speak. [I'm fine, everyone. Let's just get out of here.]

[The Blade Ship!] Rachel thundered. [Let's bring it down while we have the chance!]

But the Blade ship was already taking off and aiming its weapons.

[Or we can be shot from the sky,] Marco remarked as he ran for cover, flesh already melting into human shapes. [Let's go while we still can.]

Jake sliced open a taxxon to distract the rest before running for cover himself. The hork-bajir ran and fired wildly as Tobias and I went for their eyes and Rachel crushed some of them on her own way to find a place to demorph. The confusion and panic must have helped hide our positions from the Blade ship because it was concentrating its fire on big, obvious Rachel who was, somehow, dodging. The hork-bajir around her were not so lucky. The two crippled Bug fighters were lifting off too, the weaponised one taking aim.

[Rachel, get somewhere more public!] Jake shouted, now fully bird.

[Public?! I'm an elephant!]

[And that's a spaceship! Believe me, it's more notable than you are!]

We headed for the edge of the construction site, toward the highway, Rachel ignoring the bits of fence that were caught on her body. The Blade ship hovered a moment, then pulled back. Right on the edge of the construction site, behind a wall barely large enough, Rachel demorphed and went bald eagle.

Then we got out of there.


	12. Chapter 12

I went into town early the next day to walk to school with Rachel. We'd decided not to hang out too much as a group, at least in public; meetings in our homes were unavoidable, but with our school a hub of yeerk activity for some reason, we didn't want anybody noticing that all the Animorphs suddenly started hanging out together at about the same time as those kids were spotted in the constructions site and, oh yeah, isn't that when the 'andalite bandits' showed up? There was no reason for anybody to be paying special attention to us, but there was also no reason for us to go out of our way to invite people to draw diagrams in their heads.

Rachel and I, though, were already best friends. It was normal for us to hang out. So I waited for her at the bus stop near her house, where we sometimes met to walk in together.

A red-tailed hawk swooped down to perch on the bus sign next to me. [Hi, Cassie. Are you waiting for Rachel?]

“Yeah. Hi, Tobias. Were you looking for Rachel?”

[Me? No. Just flying around.]

“How... how have you been, by the way?”

[Well.] I recognised his tone; it was one I'd used on multiple occasions. He didn't want me to worry about him, but he also didn't want to lie. He preened a wing. [You know. I'm a hawk.]

I had noticed that. “Do you need any kind of help or...”

[Not really. I've been staying with Jake. He has an attic.]

“Right.” I was pretty sure my place was better equipped to help him than Jake's, with the added benefit of having no confirmed Controllers, but would it be kind of weird to offer? I didn't really know Tobias. “We could... try to talk to your parents, or...”

[Don't have any.] He said this in a matter-of-fact way, as if he was telling me he was allergic to peanuts. [I get bounced around between my aunt and uncle, but they probably won't notice I'm gone for quite a while. Just as well, I guess. I mean, this whole thing would be way more complicated with parents.]

He might have sounded casual, but there was no way this bird thing wasn't a huge problem for him. And it had been my fault, really. I'd been captured and forced them to rush in. I'd pulled Rachel away, calmed Rachel down when she tried to go back for him. Sure, I knew there was no way we'd have gotten in in less than two hours anyway. But we should have _tried_.

 _And all gotten captured?_ Another part of my mind asked. _Who would that have helped?_

“Look,” I told Tobias, “I'm really sorry about – ”

“Hey, Cassie!” Rachel jogged over, waving. “Decided to take a walk today? Tobias! Hi!” she added in a quieter voice.

[Hello, Rachel.]

“So,” I said, in no hurry to start walking to school. “The Chapmans.”

“Right. Well. I saw Mr Chapman having a conversation with Visser Three. On some kind of hologram communicator thing, like in Star Wars?”

I frowned. “I don't think I've seen it.”

“You're not missing much. Anyway, he threatened Chapman's yeerk a lot, which seems to be a thing with him, and said that he's in trouble with the Council of Thirteen for reporting that all the andalites were dead and then having survivors show up and attack the yeerk pool.”

“So we did get under his skin,” I said with a grin. “Who are the Council of Thirteen?”

We both glanced at Tobias.

[Sorry,] he said, [nothing in here. At least, not that I know of. A lot of this information is still all tangled up. I'll let you know if it comes up.]

“Thanks, Tobias,” Rachel said with a smile.

[All in a day's work for a... what does Marco call us?]

“Animorphs,” I said.

[For an Animorph. I'd better get going. A hawk sitting in on math class might look suspicious.] He took off. Rachel gave him a little wave.

“You know,” I said to Rachel as we headed towards the school, “I have a feeling this war is kind of complicated.”

She raised a brow at me. “An alien war against an invisible enemy? Complicated? You don't say.”

“I don't just mean the practical aspects. I mean the moral ones. I mean, it seems straightforward – yeerks come and enslave people, we want to help those people and get rid of the yeerks. And with people like Tom, fair enough. But then you see people who gave themselves over willingly, who are cooperating with the yeerks to enslave the planet, and a couple of days ago, I would've said they were just as bad. I mean, to take one of those things in your head on purpose, to actively help them integrate into Earth culture, dig themselves in deeper... that's straight-up, black-and-white betrayal of humankind, right? But then you get people like Chapman. He just wants to protect Melissa. On the one hand, he's selling out the human race, but...” I shook my head.

“But he's doing the best he can with what he has available,” Rachel finished for me. “Can't really hate somebody for wanting to protect their kid, can we?” She looked away from me and blinked hard, as if she was fighting back tears. “But you didn't see her, Cassie. She thinks her parents don't love her. She thinks there's something wrong with her, that she must have done something and nobody's telling her what it was. Yeah, maybe it's not as black and white as 'anyone who goes to the yeerks voluntarily must be evil' – but that's just because the yeerks are more evil, evil enough to push people into situations like this. And they – and their human allies who are there without hostages being held over them – ”

“No, no,” I said, “I don't think it's that simple. I thought about that. Like, if the yeerks would really do stuff like this, then anybody not being forced to go with them is selling their species out more... but when you think about it, what kind of person does that? What must be going on in their heads? What happens to a person to make them think so little of themselves that they'll just accept an infection that controls their actions and takes over their life and threatens their families, their planet? If anything, I think those people need our help more than people like Tom, or even Chapman. I don't think there are all that many people who just wake up and decide to help enslave humanity for no reason. Which means we're fighting something we can't get to. Something inside people's brains, but not really a part of their minds. I'm not sure anybody except the yeerks themselves are, well, valid targets. And when we went down to the Pool for Tom? People got hurt. People died. We don't know if they were involuntary, or voluntary under duress, or totally voluntary, but I'm starting to think that maybe that doesn't really matter. So even if we manage to keep from getting ourselves killed, I don't... I don't know how we're supposed to hold the line until the andalites get here without hurting innocent people.”

Rachel bit her lip. She was silent for quite some time. Eventually she said, “I see what you mean. But we're not just fighting for people like Chapman and Tom. We're fighting for people like Melissa and Jake. And maybe there is no way for us to go forward without getting hurt and without hurting others, maybe it's an impossible situation. Maybe we die on the next mission. Maybe some innocent humans do, because the yeerks in their heads force them into danger. But we can't afford to be paralysed in fear of that sort of thing. We do what we can to minimise the danger, but in the end, it's us – you and me and the other Animorphs – holding the line until the andalites show up.”

“So what do you think we should do until then? Keep putting innocent people in danger?”

Rachel met my eyes. “No matter what, we defend our planet. Until the andalites arrive, no matter what... we kick yeerk butt.”


End file.
